Bill Nelson

April 19, 1945

Bill Nelson was an American film sound engineer. After graduating from the University of the South and teaching English for two years at Montgomery Bell Academy, he studied film at the University of Southern California. He was nominated for two Academy Awards in the category Best Sound for 1986’s Heartbreak Ridge and 1987’s Lethal Weapon. In 1988, he decided to leave Hollywood and relocate his family to his hometown in Nashville. In 1993, he founded an educationnal production company, Little Planet Learning. In 2006, he helped his sons Andy and Charlie Nelson revive the Nashville-based Nelson’s Green Brier Distillery, originally founded in the 1860 by his great-great-grandfather. He served as board member and senior adviser to the new distillery for over a decade.